Sports People

14:45Kyle Smith:Yeah.

14:46Lauren:It's going to be crazy.

14:47Kyle Smith:I wonder where, what stadium, do you know what stadium it's going to? Why are we talking about it? It's at SoFi. Oh, got it. Okay. I have been there once.

14:55Lauren:It's a fabulous stadium.

14:57Kyle Smith:Yeah, that's fun. Maybe I'll be there. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll rent it out.

15:03Lauren:Yeah. Please come.

15:04Kyle Smith:I guess I should come to the Super Bowl if I live in LA.

15:07Lauren:I think you should. But I always say to everybody, like the Super Bowl, if you don't go to the game, like go to the location of it, like for the week. Every celebrity's in town. Every brand's in town. There's so many parties. It's just like going to Fashion Week and that like you can watch it online. You can look at the photos. But you go for the people and the people that you meet and the opportunities that are there.

15:34Kyle Smith:I don't smoke and I never have, but I feel like everyone else I know is suddenly smoking again. Of course, it's a free country. So if you like smoking, do what you will. But if your New Year's resolution is to quit or even to use nicotine in a healthier way, check out Quit With Jones. Visit quitwithjones.com slash fashion to take the free quiz and use code fashion to get 15 % off your personalized quitting journey. That's quitwithjones.com slash fashion. Taking back control starts now. Thanks to Quit With Jones for supporting this episode. And just a heads up, the mints contain nicotine, which is an addictive chemical.

16:19Kyle Smith:Jones is FDA approved and available for those that are 18 and older.

16:24Lauren:For years, Gone South has been a podcast about crime in the American South. But for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South, and in a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to Gone South Season 5, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

16:57Kyle Smith:are you heading back to new york for fashion week or are you skipping i'm 50 50 right now

17:03Lauren:one of my guys um was invited to some shows and so thinking about going but it's also all stars next weekend in la like i just want to go home so bad right now like i get it who knows i also

17:17Kyle Smith:want to go home so bad and I have um seven more days no I'm excited to be here it's I got I got through the coldest day and so now I'm just I just have to and I want to vent down three more to go and then all the fashion shows and the writing and everything it's it's all fun it's all good um You know who else has been like sort of on a tour tear of busyness is Margot Robbie for her Wuthering Heights press tour. And I was curious from as a stylist, from your perspective, what you think about what she's been wearing. So she's been doing like she started working with Andrew Mookumal during the Barbie campaign.

18:05Kyle Smith:and they did like they they kind of i don't think they were the first to do like the big themy thing but i think that they did it maybe challengers was before barbie i can't remember i'm tired but um it was really themy because it was barbie and so she was a different barbie at every every event and all this pink this was and it's interesting because like i like her i'm not I'm neutral on her. I obviously love Andrew Mugumal. I'm not ever that interested in her clothing. Like, I liked the Barbie tour. I thought it was fun. But this tour, and also, I am going to go see this movie or rent it or something.

18:46Kyle Smith:I love Wuthering Heights. Emerald Fennell, the director, I loved her first movie, Promising Young Woman. I hated Salt Burn, so I'm mixed on her. but I think she's amazing and, and I'm interested in her as a director. So I will go see this movie or, or rent it or something. They did like a, it was interesting because it's not, it wasn't like period piece clothing, but they did a lot of bodices. Cause this is like sort of a rip bodice type story, even though it's high literary fiction or whatever. I loved this tour. I think like it was interesting because it's completely, it's not my personal taste at all and i think sometimes it's really hard for fashion writers not to let their personal taste get in the way like i love everything danielle goldberg does because i like her taste right but this was i just thought she looked tremendous in every single look it was like a little bit campy but not too campy um there we can go through looks but i was just curious what your take was as someone who is you do this for a living you're crafting people's images you worked with carla so you've done like tons of that sort of a-lister red carpet and now you do it for for these people who are really trying to tell who they are through clothes because they don't talk as much as as an actor or whatever i was just curious what you thought about

20:15Lauren:it actually i love it but it's funny you mentioned that because they always bring up margot robbie's Barbie tour when I talk about our players and why I think it's really cool to work with them and that like Margot Robbie isn't Barbie she's an actress she's not her character in Wuthering Heights she's an actress so when she's dressing and doing these things like it's cool to like then kind of build out this universe of her and through her clothing and then the difference with our players is like they're not acting they're just being themselves yeah you know they get to like be really authentic which is like is you know it's just two different forms of styling i guess one margot's like promoting a project in a film um whatever she's working on and then with our players it's they're just being themselves they're promoting themselves and their personal brand um but i love i love what andrew's doing with margot i think it's it's really cool because then it gets you really excited for it just expanding the universe of whatever project she's working on but you're right it's like also like there's charlie xcx songs in this movie

21:29Kyle Smith:yeah there was interesting i got a couple because i posted the dress from that british designer who's i'm gonna look up her name because i'll probably butcher it maybe you know it it is I love this I thought she looked truly incredible in it oh it's um oh come on well I think I can do this I think it's phonetic Dilara Fendi Kuklu the one with Kylie Jenner right yes find it Kuklu find it Fendi Kuklu this dress is incredible anyone who says it's not incredible and it was interesting a couple people who who I I really respect their style and their sort of sense of these things was like, it, it all looked too forced, but like the John Galliano stuff, the vintage John Galliano, she wore a 1988 Vivian Westwood bubble skirt dress.

22:27Kyle Smith:Then she was wearing,

22:29Lauren:I think she wore Tom Brown the other day.

22:32Kyle Smith:Yes. More Dallara, Finda Goklu, Koklu. She wore, oh yes, this custom Tom Brown, that is like the sexiest thing Tom Brown has ever made with like garter belts and thigh highs. It was incredible. She wore a gorgeous Chanel couture. I mean, just like velvet dream stuff. And then what was this final look that they're showing? Mark Gong. I don't know that designer. I'm not cool enough. Now I do, but I loved it. And I also my best friend from college, Jenny, posted it. And she is like loves fashion, but is not a fashion victim. She's not like following it. She was like, this is the best. I like it. It was her.

23:21Kyle Smith:All these clothes are her dream. I just thought it was really well done and really fun. And and it's so hard these days to get that stuff right. And I thought they did a really good job with it. yeah I mean you're building an image yes I think I think it's really cool to see

23:39Lauren:a talented stylist be so creative like it's you put you put fashion in the hands of the right person and you're building like it's a whole world it's so cool and that's what I think I love about styling is like the world building sorry I'm running through these but they are

23:58Kyle Smith:all so good and everyone should go there's like a post on cosmopolitan it's probably syndicated across all her websites because that's what they do but um they did it's like all the looks and there's scaparelli there was like a gradient ball skirt that was amazing more dillara finda coqlue and then also an alexander mcqueen gorgeous dress by sean mcgir it's it's gorgeous i loved i'm obsessed. I loved all of it. And it's been so fun to watch it. And Dallara to me is like, she was already because Kylie and the Jenners wore her to the Bezos wedding. I feel like that's where she was really on the map outside of London.

24:43Kyle Smith:But I think and I know that I think last season, her show was extremely late and people were annoyed. But the point being that like, I wish I don't think I'm going to London for two days. I don't think I'm going to be there when her show is happening if she's doing one, but she is a real star. And this campaign sort of sealed that for me. And I can't even imagine what Andrew's phone is going to look like after this. Every single A-list star is going to be like, I want you to do my press tour. It's going to be crazy. I hope he's making a lot of money.

25:17Lauren:Me too. I only hope the most talented people are making tons of

25:21Kyle Smith:money yes um another thing i wanted to ask you about is on friday it was finally announced that peter mule mule year mule year um is is going to be the new creative director of versace i reported this a couple months ago and it took a while but they did they have reported it he's going to do, I believe, one more collection for Aliyah, final collection, and then he starts on July 1st at Versace. I don't, they didn't announce when his first collection would be. My hunch is that it's going to be, he'll do, the runway will be February 2027, and he'll do some sort of small activation in the fall, but like, I'm just guessing.

26:09Kyle Smith:So I don't know, but I am just curious, like what you thought about Peter's work at Aliyah and how you feel about him taking over Versace. I think Peter's work at Aliyah,

26:25Lauren:you have like one mission. It's like uphold it. Like I think Aliyah is too iconic to, like I think of Clueless every time, like this is Aliyah. Like that's like every LA person's like introduction to Aliyah.

26:39Kyle Smith:It's how everyone in America, other than people who read magazines, found out about Alaya or watched House of Style, obviously.

26:49Lauren:Right. And I think like he did his job like he didn't he didn't make it something like a disappointment to anybody. Like I really liked his work there. And then both Versace. I'm so curious what that collection would look like. Because I'm thinking of what Donatella had done. And I'm like, are those the same person? Do they live in the same world? I don't know. So I'm so curious to see. But if he's as talented, if you can bring his talent that he had with Alaya to Versace, I would be really curious what that can look like from him.

27:27Kyle Smith:Yeah, it was interesting because Dario Vitale was really channeling like early 1980s Versace.

27:34Lauren:Right, like OG Versace. Versace people don't even know.

27:38Kyle Smith:Exactly. Yes. And so I think Peter is such I feel like he's really modern as a designer. So maybe it'll be more. I don't think it's going to be like Donatella, but I can see it feeling more bodycon and about bodycon in the way Donatella was. I could see that's what they would share. But I'm excited for it.

28:03Lauren:And Aliyah's pretty bodycon. Like, I think that's the crossover, right? Yes. But then, like, the color. I'm thinking about the color is what I'm actually kind of nervous about.

28:13Kyle Smith:Yeah, it's interesting because he has a very particular sense of color that I love. I bought a beautiful blue. I don't even know how to describe it. Like almost electric blue dress from it was a commercial dress, but the color was taken from the runway. And it's I love it. I mean, it's it fits like a dream and it's just a really incredible piece. But but it is. Yeah, it's interesting. It's going to be it's going to be fun. And he's also really good at accessories and things like that. So I hope we get some good shoes. I hope we get some great jeans. I'm really looking forward to it.

28:53Kyle Smith:When you want your spring break to feel like. And your kids pool day to feel like. And your hotel bed to feel like. Oh, and room service to feel like. because at Hilton, hospitality feels like

29:12Lauren:your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

29:14Kyle Smith:It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton for this day.

29:23Lauren:My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink, then straight to the gym. Pre-K pickup, back home to meal prep. Time for my fire station shift. One more Celsius, gotta keep the lights on. When the three alarm hits, I'm ready. Celsius. Live. Fit. Go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com.

29:48Kyle Smith:Kyle, one final question on the subject of Italy and Italian brands. Oh, yes. I was curious. Did you watch the openings? Did you have time? I guess you didn't if you were in San Francisco, but did you watch or like catch any of the opening ceremonies? There was so much Armani, there's a little Montclair. I'm curious what you thought about the Milan Cortino Olympics, how they're going so far fashion wise.

30:15Lauren:If you think I've had time to look at any of this, I wish I so wish I did because I actually love the Olympics in a way that's sickening. But I have not had a chance. I'm not surprised there was Armani or the Montclair, especially after. I did see that show that they did in Aspen. Oh, did you go to Aspen? No, please. I wish. But one of my players I work with, Penny Stills, was in the show as a model. Amazing. So he sent me photos from that. So I saw that. I was like, oh, this makes sense for Milan. But did not get a chance to see any of the looks. I need the rundown.

30:55Kyle Smith:My hot take is that I didn't think it was that amazing. I thought that the Armani stuff was fabulous. They did like a big sort of tribute to him and Vittoria Saretti, who's the campaign star. She wore like a gorgeous Armani privé dress and they did like red, white and green Armani suits. And then the team wears like a subset brand, like a sporty brand of Emporio Armani. I thought the Ralph Lauren opening ceremony looks were good. look like there are a lot of puffers because it's cold yeah and it's winter i don't know something's in the air about hockey because of heated rivalry and then also because of it being the winter olympics and and skating and ice rinks and all that and it hockey is this sport that like i grew up in pittsburgh where hockey was a big thing pittsburgh penguins yamir yager all that stuff but like even pre-moving to Los Angeles and I know the New York Rangers are big but like hockey just felt like it had it had fallen out of the culture in the same way that I think baseball has a little bit and I don't know why I'm obsessed with like NFL and NBA are very much in the middle of culture whereas baseball in particular I think used to be and it goes it it ebbs and flows but I I feel that it has fallen out of the culture in certain ways that it used to dominate in like the late 80s or what have you.

32:27Kyle Smith:But that's just me as someone who's not that interested in watching sports, but like I'm interested in the culture of sports. NHL even more. I was like, why does this even exist anymore? And then all this stuff has been happening in the last couple of months where it feels like it's it's moving. And I'm sure that the NHL has seen what the NFL and the NBA have done and are moving in. I doubt they orchestrated heated rivalry. But anyway, I ended up watching The Cutting Edge over the last few nights. The film about the figure skater and the hockey player, it's extremely good. And the outfits in it are amazing.

33:06Kyle Smith:But there was a Canadian figure skater who wore these custom Oscar de la Renta outfits. And it reminded me so much of like the Vera Wang era of like Michelle Kwan and Nancy Kerrigan wearing her stuff. And so those were gorgeous. And we did that last night. We did a party with Oscar de la Renta Super Bowl party, which was really fun.

33:29Lauren:And they had that's so fabulous.

33:30Kyle Smith:It was awesome. It was like a million times better than you could imagine. It was so much fun. Huge congrats to the CMO, Chloe Papescu, and also Eliza and Alex Bolin, who own the company, because the party was amazing. We had chips and caviar and dip and wings and pizza and solo cups that were co-branded Puck and Oscar. They had the Foam Fingers co-branded Puck and Oscar. They did all these raffles. Everybody watched the show at a big theater. I got to wear Oscar De La Renta. We all got to wear Oscar De La Renta, which was really fun. And they like diamanteed the footballs that the models were carrying.

34:17Kyle Smith:And they didn't do a show. It was just like more they were walking around. It was such a good, I had such a good time. But anyway, why did I bring that up? Oh, because they did these costumes and it was just really fun. But I would say, honestly, like a lot of my friends, I was at soccer on Saturday morning before I flew to New York. And a couple of my friends were like, what do you think? What do you think? And I was like, I don't I was more interested in the Summer Olympics in Paris. But it was it was interesting to me. My biggest takeaway that I wrote about in Line Sheet was it's very obvious that independent companies are still really important in Italy.

35:02Kyle Smith:Whereas in France, LVMH co-sponsored the Olympics and they were so dominant and everything was about LVMH. And that exists. They exist. Cary exists. They all exist in Italy. but it was just it kind of like underscored the importance of Armani to that culture and also Moncler too which is you know is a group now but Rema Ruffini is such an entrepreneur and it was just it was interesting but I have to say like I didn't have a bunch of takeaways from I like the color and everybody looked a little nuts but yes I know the Issey Miyake uniforms from I I think it was like Barcelona in 92 or 93, the Lithuanian uniforms, the best Olympics uniforms ever.

35:47Lauren:I think about those every day.

35:49Kyle Smith:Yeah, I mean, they're good. They're good.

35:51Lauren:When are we going to do that again?

35:54Kyle Smith:Well, this is the thing. Like, they should be, I get why, I mean, it costs a lot of money to win one of these sponsorships. So I get why Ben Sherman is the sponsor of the British team. But like, no one wants to see that stuff. People want to see Sean McGeer from McQueen doing it.

36:15Lauren:That would be heaven.

36:19Kyle Smith:Or our new friend from London. They want something interesting. So it's complicated. But I think the smaller countries, if I were a designer, I would give the smaller countries that don't, you know, they're never going to get that much money. You could probably afford to sponsor it. I would do that. Because you get so much pickup. The press around these things is wild. But generally, I would say my sort of negative Nelly take is that the uniforms for the opening ceremony weren't that great. And I'm much more interested to see what people are wearing off the slopes and off the court and all that.

36:58Kyle Smith:And also as their uniforms for the actual competitions. That's a little more interesting to me.

37:05Lauren:That's so funny. Because in football, I'm always like, I'm not looking at the uniforms. I'm never looking at those. But then there's so many avid fans that their whole life is the uniform. And they're excited about the next game's uniform. They're like, oh, they're doing the white edition. Or this year we had Nike rivalries jerseys is what they were called. And it was special rivalry teams. There were eight of them. And it would be like the Arizona Cardinals were doing this dusty, dune-like situation. and then like the Bills have like a Blizzard theme and so like uniforms could be kind of a cool moment that can make a certain match or a certain game like so interesting and there are fans of team uniforms.

37:55Kyle Smith:I am hugely interested in that stuff because I just am interested in utility and then also messaging through color and little signals like that. But I also think what people wear offline is important too. Like when Skims, I don't know if they did it for this year, but I'm sure they're doing it for LA. And they're definitely also, they did it for the last Olympics. But it's like being the official, whatever it is, the village outfitter. So what you're wearing on the downtime. Or J.Crew has an interesting partnership with ski and snowboarding. and where they're like the official lifestyle partner.

38:40Kyle Smith:And they did an amazing collaboration that I actually bought something from because I liked it so much. It just looked so good. All the merch has been really good. I love the gap stuff. It's been fun. But Kyle, is football an Olympic sport? I guess it's not.

38:56Lauren:Well, interesting you say that, Lauren. So for the past few years, because I remember when I started a few years ago, it was a big thing. flag football was really, really a big initiative of ours to get, you know, boys and girls can play flag football. And so it's been a big deal for us to get it into the Olympics. Like we were having meetings with the International Olympic Committee. And then like two years ago, it was approved. So in the LA Olympics, it's going to be the first year that we have flag football. And I'm really excited about that and also the opportunities like we've been talking to a few amazing artists and singers um i can't name anybody but about doing official nfl flag merch so like the flags are designed by maybe one of your fear one of your favorite rappers or you know like really cool merch that kids can buy adults can buy um so it's going to be in the olympics and then i might be wrong my publicist might kill me but i'm pretty sure it was just approved that like We could have our players or NFL athletes be the flag football Olympians.

40:11Lauren:Wow. Fingers crossed.

40:14Kyle Smith:We'll see. Stay tuned for the next time Kyle Zani can update us on that.

40:19Lauren:I'll give you a big update.

40:21Kyle Smith:Kyle, thank you for getting up so early and doing this. And it was so fun to chat with you. I love watching what you're doing. And I hope to see you at some fashion week or another soon.

40:32Lauren:I'll see you soon we just announced our first Paris game so maybe then maybe in Paris

40:40Kyle Smith:yes let's do it let's do it Kyle thanks again this was so fun thank you Fashion People is a presentation of Odyssey in partnership with Puck this show was produced and edited by Molly Nugent special thanks to our executive producers Puck co-founder John Kelly executive editor Ben Landy and director of editorial operations Gobby Grossman. An additional thanks to the team at Odyssey, J.D. Crowley, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and Bob Tabador.